India continues to be the fourth
largest source market in terms of visitor arrivals and third largest tourism
receipts generating market for Singapore. Singapore Tourism Board and
Singapore Airlines Group embarked on a six (6) city road show across India,
with positive participation from 39 Singapore stakeholders and over 800
in-market travel agents. The road show held in Ahmadabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata
and Hyderabad, Colombo. Themed “Growing Tourism into Singapore, Together”, the
delegation was led by Mr. GB Srithar (Regional Director, South Asia Middle East
& Africa), Mr. Adrian Kong (Area Director, South Asia, Mumbai) and Ms.
Yuemin Li-Misra (Area Director, South Asia, Delhi). The road shows featured
stakeholders from Singapore representing hotels, airlines, integrated resorts,
attractions, Destination Management Companies (DMC) and cruise operators
interacting and networking with STB’s travel and trade partners in India.

Mr. GB Srithar, while
addressing the audience, spoke about fostering meaningful collaborations with
the travel trade partners especially from secondary cities across India. He
said, “India has always been an important market for us. For the second time in
a row, Singapore received more than one million Indian visitors in 2016. As the region’s middle-class becomes more affluent,
there will be immense opportunities for international outbound travel and
tourism, especially among families, working millennial and incentive movements.
Through the road shows, we seek to renew our ties with the travel trade,
entrenching existing partnerships and forging new ones. Through these
partnerships, we seek to bring Singapore’s tourism offerings to our target
audiences through creative promotions, and in the process, ensuring meaningful results for
both our partners and the local travel trade.”

Feedback from Singapore stakeholders was encouraging.
Ms. Yvonne Low, Executive Director, The Traveller DMC Pte. Ltd. said “The six
city road shows have received overwhelming response and
interest. Singapore continues to be a top of-mind destination and we are
all ‘fired-up’ to receive more Indian visitors in the coming months with fresh
products and offerings.”

Mr. Asogan Jaganathan, Assistant Head – South &
West Asia Sales for Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore added “All Road shows
across India observed overwhelming response amongst the local travel trade
partners and their active participation shows that Singapore is indeed a very
popular destination. Specifically for Resorts World Sentosa, these events have
given us a platform to discuss business opportunities with existing and new
partners, as well as thank them for their fullest support in promoting our products
to their clients. Lastly, we would like to convey our sincerest appreciation to
Singapore Tourism Board & Singapore Airlines for organizing these road
shows. ”